Re: JB/59 in a RG550?

My RG-1527 has the JB-59 combo (guitar is basswood, with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard). These pickups sound great in my opinion, you need to roll your tone knob up for the '59 or it gets a little muddy, but I play with tone on full anyway

You get a great selection of sounds with the standard Ibanez 5-way switch too.

Re: JB/59 in a RG550?

Around here people tend to be DiMarziophiles™, and at other forums they think basswood is this poor-ass wood that makes everything sound like crap.

JBs sound good in an alder superstrat, so I'm sure it will sound good in a basswood one.

LoL, there are a lot of DiMarziophiles on here, i've never really noticed until you pointed that out. Just because they are set into Ibanez guitars, that does not make them the best pickups to use! There are a handful of other brands I would prefer over DiMarzio And as for basswood body guitars, Basswood is not a very pickup friendly wood! Its pretty even/flat tonally, with a little bit of an upper mid/high spike. Thicker pickups work the best. BareKnuckePickups-"WARPIGS"(Best pickup brand money can buy) sound the best in basswood bodies! That sound and setup will destroy any other customized, pickup equipped guitar! .`,*KEEP IN MIND IM TALKING ABOUT AND REFERRING TO THE SOUNDS OF DIFFERENT STYLES OF "METAL"*.`,

I have a Jackson SLSMG; I replaced its Active EMGs in favor for the Passive Seymour Duncan JB/59 and the sound is now smooth and warmer compared to how thin and compressed it was before! I might experiment more and throw Actives back in and try out an EMG 85X/85 setup! Despite there being alot of EMG bashers they work perfect for my Brutal Death Metal styles Just upgrade your pots and caps, throw an 18v mod and EMGs sound like nothing b4 But yes your JB/59 should sound great! althought I would recommend a fullshred/Jazz as its more suitable for basswood

Re: JB/59 in a RG550?

You could probably count me in as a DiMarziophiles too. I'll admit as an impressionable teenager I was attracted to DiMarzio based on the guitarists who endorsed them. Now I use them because they do a better job at presenting information about how the pickup sounds than anyone else, IMO, and they have a large variety of colors available, probably the largest.

Re: JB/59 in a RG550?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedTiger

You could probably count me in as a DiMarziophiles too. I'll admit as an impressionable teenager I was attracted to DiMarzio based on the guitarists who endorsed them. Now I use them because they do a better job at presenting information about how the pickup sounds than anyone else, IMO, and they have a large variety of colors available, probably the largest.

Yea I agree with you there, aesthetically i'd go with DiMarzio but I tend to base my judgements off of performance and could care less about looks and colors. Sorry if im sounding like a buttwiper, im not bashing on DiMarzio as they are very excellent pickups and do rank in my top 5(im actually in the process of purchasing a set) I prefer the sounds some other passives give as they do a good job characterizing and incorporating the wood and hardware of a guitar into its tone giving it its own unique overall guitar sound there can never be a right or wrong answer or this is better then that, its just more of a personal preference and comes down to the syle you play and what pickup sounds better to you. Everyone lives there own reality and hears differently, what might look and sound good to you will look awful and sound horrible to me, hope I make sense?

Re: JB/59 in a RG550?

I did it. I'm a true-blue Dimarzio fan. It sounded good for everything from sparkling cleans to great metal tones. Don't know that it'll do the drop-tuned death metal but if you need more gain use a pedal. Tonally, solid--I have no reason to disparage. I just prefer Dimarzio.

Re: JB/59 in a RG550?

I put a JB in a 540-R (basswood) that I modded and didn't care for it. Not bad, just not enough cajones for what I wanted out of that guitar. I really wanted to try out a Seymour Duncan for that guitar since all of my other Ibanez were (stock) Dimarzios.

I wound up with a "Custom 8" (SD Custom Custom modded with Alnico 8 magnet) that sounds really amazing in that guitar. I bought it off of the SD forum. There's a lot of guys on there who seem to swap out pickups a lot, so if you have time, you can pay ~$50 per humbucker and try out a few different ones. Then sell whatever you don't like and probably break even.